Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor: Obama's Drone Surge as Damaging as Bush Torture Program

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/02/01-5



US Air Force Col. Morris Davis (Ret.), who says: "If we're the country we claim to be, we've got to get back to the values we claim to represent."

Ex-Gitmo Prosecutor: Obama's Drone Surge as Damaging as Bush Torture Program
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Friday, February 1, 2013 by Common Dreams

Retired Air Force Col. Morris "Moe" Davis, once the lead government prosecutor for terrorism suspects at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, says that the US torture regime under Bush and now the drone assassination program run by the Obama administration have combined to make the world less safe and called both programs—whether they could be legally justified or not—"immoral."

"We are not the shining city on the hill," Davis told the small crowd gathered at Johnston Community College in North Carolina on Thursday night. "If we're the country we claim to be, we've got to get back to the values we claim to represent. Regardless of whether it's illegal, it's immoral."

~snip~

The group that sponsored the evening's lecture, North Carolina Stop Torture Now, noted that Col. Davis' appearances come on the heels of reports by the Washington Post and European human rights advocates that the Obama administration continues to secretly detain suspected terrorists captured abroad.

Comparing Bush's torture regime to Obama's escalated use of drones to carry out attacks in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere Davis said it was "six of one and half a dozen of another."

[plethoro]

1. I don't think it is right now more damaging, but I think it is more dangerous and

has the potential of being so dangerous it will virtually make us Orwell's Big Brother. THX 1138 here we come.

[Orrex]

2. The drone program is arguably worse...

because when we waterboard someone, we don't typically waterboard the dozen family members or friends who happen to be nearby; we isolate the torture to the individual, more or less.

But a drone strike can easily take out numerous civilians who then need to be retroactively reclassified as terrorists or as potential terrorists.


I can tell you that if some invading army killed my family while trying to assassinate the terrorist next door, I would spend the rest of my life working to exact revenge upon that invading army and its enabling nation.

Winning the hearts and minds, indeed.

[cpwm17]

3. You're right

We learned absolutely nothing on 9-11 about why we were attacked in the first place – it was our aggressive foreign policy. We do most of the attacking.

[NoMoreWarNow]

5. it IS worse

for exactly the reasons you lay out. It is making terrorism worse, and prolonging the war.

Possibly one could argue the torture program started us down this dark, immoral road-- but there is no reason we need to stay on this path.

[Doctor_J]

4. This is going to give the Kool-Aid drinkers some indigestion

Some time around Summer 2010, a guy called Brunch With Bernie. He said he was a thirtysomething lifelong Republican voter who had voted for Obama in 2008, primarily because he simply could not abide his party's use of torture, and because Obama had promised to end it. He went on to say that on his pet issue he was now convinced that the president was no better than Cheney - that he'd been tricked into his vote. I don't know if he went back to the GOP or stayed home, but guys like THAT, not the liberals, are the ones who sunk the mid-terms. And the president can look in the mirror if he wants to see the problem.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[Left Turn Only]

7. What's Wrong Is Wrong

Drones are bombs. Sending bombs into another country's airspace -- a country we are not at war with -- violates that country's sovereignty. How has the U.S. turned into a country of assassins?

[another_liberal]

8. Ouch!

He is quite correct, ""We are not the shining city on the hill," in fact, we never were.

And John Winthrop was a twit.

[Buzz Clik]

9. I'm not sure I give a shit what this guy says.

Given his past, I'm guessing that he actually prefers being the prosecutor in charge of one of Bush's torture chambers.

The difference between the drone program (not started by Obama) and places like Gitmo is that we can ground our drones and the program is done. We cannot get rid of Gitmo unless we get a new Congress.

[Catherina]

10. K&R n/t